Advice on rejecting a used car.

didsy29

Hello.

I bought a used car on 23/12/11 and it developed a whining noise the next day. I wasn't able to contact the dealer until 28/12 due to xmas but he then booked my car in for January and advised me to continue driving. Unhappy with this i got a second opinion from a main dealer and found out the engine mount bolts had sheared causing the engine block to drop! The car's only done 40000 miles. The dealer has offered to fix the problem but it is a massive job and i'm unhappy with them undertaking it. I was wondering what my rights are with regards to rejecting the vehicle?

Thanks in advance.

harveybobbles

Don't think you can reject the vehicle to be honest as the selling dealer has said they will fix it...

Just because it's a big job doesn't mean it'll be done at their place. They may farm some work out if they are busy or have skeleton staff on etc.

didsy29

Fair one. It involves removing the engine and replacing the short block though, and if they were competent i'm sure they would have picked up on this problem when it had an mot/service/safety inspection by them just over a week ago. That's why i'm pretty reluctant to let them touch it! Cheers for your answer though.

captainawsome

Could you not just get the garage to pay the main dealer and have them do it instead of giving the car back?

vax2002

sheared bolts are not a serious problem if the head of the bolt has sheared, no matter how tight it was, once the head has sheared off, what was making it tight is gone and the thread can often be removed with a screwdriver or at worse a stud extractor, the thread is never tight, only the head of the bolt against the stop end.

colino

Changing engine mounts/bolts is just a fiddly job on most, and especially anonymous, cars. I'd be more worried why the bolts failed/need changing. Unless its ancient and been rattled over farm tracks for years you really do have to reassess the rest of the car.

passatrider

You will have to give them reasonable chance to repair the car before you can reject it I'm afraid. Let them sort it and see what happens when you get it back.

s_b

passatrider wrote: »

You will have to give them reasonable chance to repair the car before you can reject it I'm afraid. Let them sort it and see what happens when you get it back.

which is fair and proper
they seem to have been fine so far and no decent garage would want to sell a car with an engine wanting to go walkies
ka's break their mountings quite easily as an example and they dont
need dirt tracks to do it

didsy29

Thanks for all your replys.

vax2002 wrote: »

sheared bolts are not a serious problem if the head of the bolt has sheared, no matter how tight it was, once the head has sheared off, what was making it tight is gone and the thread can often be removed with a screwdriver or at worse a stud extractor, the thread is never tight, only the head of the bolt against the stop end.

Unfortunately not because the mounting point on the engine block has broken off which means the block needs replacing.

colino wrote: »

Changing engine mounts/bolts is just a fiddly job on most, and especially anonymous, cars. I'd be more worried why the bolts failed/need changing. Unless its ancient and been rattled over farm tracks for years you really do have to reassess the rest of the car.

According to VW main dealer the only way the bolts fail is if they have been incorrectly torqued or removed and put back because they are stretch bolts and can't be reused. Therefore the fact that they failed less than 24 hours after leaving the dealer's workshop surely points the blame at them?

captainawsome wrote: »

Could you not just get the garage to pay the main dealer and have them do it instead of giving the car back?

Getting the car fixed by a main dealer was my preferred option but they are unwilling to meet the labour costs. The way I see it is that I have clearly been sold an unroadworthy car and i'm being caused major inconvenience which I was hoping would give me the right to reject the vehicle if they still don't want to pay a main dealer?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

to expect the dealer to authorise a main dealer repair without first inspecting what the issue is exactly is unreasonable.

engine mounts are not part of the MOT it will pass if everything else is in orderit may have been visually perfect to the eye when it was MOT'd ive known a few cars to pass mot but to snap a coil spring coming off the ramp on completion of that mot as far as the test went it was a pass at the time.

give the garage a chance to repair it, if they cant do it they may offer main dealer repair, a replacement car, or your cash back anyway if its not economical for them to repair it.

didsy29

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

to expect the dealer to authorise a main dealer repair without first inspecting what the issue is exactly is unreasonable.

They've got the car now and have inspected it so that's not the issue. They say the job will be carried out to the same standard as a main dealer would but won't offer the same guarantee on parts and labour (or any). We're not talking about changing a bulb, it's a major engine strip/rebuild so i don't think i'm being unreasonable in the slightest.